The ANABASIS is a progressive rock collaborative studio project conceived by multi-instrumentalist and composer Barry Thompson of Norton, MA (US) with lyrics by freelance writer and author George Andrade of Fall River, MA (US). In 2009, Barry approached George with the idea of merging a personal story of falling from grace and redemption with that of a sociopolitical story of the self-destructive impulses that riddle and affect our public existences and mirror the inner struggles that we harbor, while also highlighting the hope that can release us from such travails . the debut album was named "Back From Being Gone" and The ANABASIS was born.

Anabasis is
what we called a supergroup in the good old days. How did this band come about
and how did you get together the band ?

In 2009, I approached
George with the idea of merging a personal story of falling from grace and
redemption with that of a sociopolitical story of the avarice, lust, betrayal
and self-destructive impulses that riddle and affect our public existences while
also highlighting the hope that can release us from such travails … the album
was named “Back From Being Gone” and The ANABASIS was born.
But we knew we needed additional help with the project, so since I had worked
with Lee Abraham before, and loved how his album “Black and White” sounded, I
asked him to produce and mix the album for us. Lee also brought in Gerald
“Mully” Mulligan for drums. It was around this time that we sent Ryo Okumoto
the demo for “Rome” and he took the song in a completely different direction
that what we had originally produced as a demo, but we recognized that not only
was it a different direction, but it was a better direction. Originally, we
only planned to have Ryo as a guest, but he expressed some interest in doing
more, so we decided to have him on every track except “Carpe Diem” which had
already been completed by Jeroen Hendrix on keys. Jeroen’s performance was
perfect so we didn’t see any need to do it over with Ryo.

How did you
sort out the contracts since most of the band members are contracted with their
life & limbs to other labels and publishing entities ?

Everyone
on the album who required payment were paid as session players up front, and
several of the players donated their contributions since they were friends of
mine and just looking to have some fun playing good music without the stress and
hassles of business entanglements. This was a labor of love on my part, we
literally have no chance of making any profit on it, but that’s not why I make
music anyway. I make music because I love music, and I know that my friends who
are the core band, Per Fredrik Pellek Åsly (vocals) Gerald Mulligan (drums) Ryo
Okumoto (keyboards) and George Andrade (lyrics/producer) are in this for the
love of the art form and the joy of creating music.

Why did you
choose that name ?

The word ANABASIS can mean “an advance”
particularly a military advance, and since a large part of the conceptual
underpinning of the story has to do with the Roman Empire and how they conquered
Egypt, but ultimately met their own demise through their own self-destructive
impulses. But you’ll notice that some of the songs are also about more
individual personal struggles, and I thought a word that means “advancing” was
well suited to that side of the concept as well, since the songs deal with human
struggles. Plus, it sounds cool.

How did 10T
Records get involved in this project ?

I am friends with Kerry
Chicoine of the progressive rock band “Mars Hollow” and when we were closing in
on finishing the album I sent him a few of the reference mixes and asked if he
thought his label might be interested and he put me in touch with Steve Carroll
and the rest, as they say, is history.

The end
product was the album Back From Being Gone released some weeks ago. Please tell
us more about this album. How would you describe the music ?

The
music is a collection of songs that I’ve literally been developing for the last
decade. There is a trilogy of epic tracks that we refer to as “The ANABASIS
Suite” and those are Track 1, “Rome,” Track 4, “Vikings,” and Track 6, “Egypt”
and those are the three historical tracks that George Andrade did an amazing job
with lyrically. Ryo Okumoto helped us tremendously with these tracks as well.
Repeated listens will reveal plenty of musical and lyrical nuggets throughout
these three tracks with there being several melodic themes that are revisited as
well as several lyrical breadcrumbs that tie them all together into one very
large package. The other three tracks are a bit more personal in nature and
provide a peek into my own personal struggles. Musically, I would say we walk
right up to the line where heavy metal begins, but we never quite cross that
line. There are certainly plenty of moments of crunchy guitars, and I think
anyone who listens to this album is going to know that I am a fan of Iron
Maiden, Transatlantic and maybe even Fates Warning, but they may also be
surprised at how thickly orchestrated it is. For example, if I remember
correctly, Ryo sent us 16 individual various keyboard tracks for “Vikings.” I
know you can’t please everyone, but we really tried to make an album that had
something on there that most fans of progressive music would enjoy.

The album is
out and is awaiting the reactions from honest/curious/envious wanna be
rockers/stoned/tea drinking reviewers with various personality disorders. What
is the Anabasis plans now ? Is Anabasis a project now or a band which plans to
come up with a new album ?

The ANABASIS is
purely a studio project. In fact, no two musicians ever occupied the same room
at the same time in the recording of this album as it was done completely over
the internet. Sadly, in the age of torrents the studio band is a dying breed,
since we must survive on album sales alone and won’t be out playing any gigs.
As I mentioned earlier, this was a labor of love, something I wanted to do for
the love of the genre and for the pleasure of creating something from nothing.
I have had such an incredible experience putting this music together and working
with all of these ridiculously talented musicians. We will definitely be doing
another album, everyone who was on this album is already on board for the next
one and I am pretty sure that we’ll have a few more very well known special
guests from the progressive rock scene next time including at least one more
member of Spock’s Beard, possibly two more. I’ve already got two tracks fully
demoed, one is an epic and another three that I’m working on, so yes, we’re well
on our way to album #2.

To wrap up
this interview, is there anything you want to add to this interview ?

I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with the
musicians I’ve worked with on this album and I can’t wait to make the next one.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to listen to our music. We
appreciate every single fan.

To be honest, I don't see why every new band doesn't get out and beat the bushes like you guys are doing. It does stimulate interest, and I'll prolly definitely pick up your album someday whereas I might not have otherwise if you'd just been another random artist added to PA.

We're at a bit of a disadvantage over a lot of other bands because we're never going to do any live gigs, so we're going to have to rely 100% on CD and Digital album sales.

As I mentioned in the interview, I am not doing this for money at all. I personally financed the entire project myself. I paid the session musicians, I paid for the mixing and mastering, the artwork, the replication, all of it. And I'll do it again for the next album. I just love creating music.

The only thing I hope we can accomplish is if I could just maybe get half the money back that I invested, I'd be thrilled!

But the biggest payback is when we get positive reviews like this one. Or when people come on our FaceBook page and tell us they love our music. That makes it all worth it!

To be honest, I don't see why every new band doesn't get out and beat the bushes like you guys are doing. It does stimulate interest, and I'll prolly definitely pick up your album someday whereas I might not have otherwise if you'd just been another random artist added to PA.

Thanks, Deathrabbit - that was really cool of you to notice ... Barry and I don't take anything for granted and we're working really hard to get our project out and heard at the highest possible levels; we love and respect this genre of music too much to cop any attitudes other than complete humility and appreciation for the opportunities that we are given through our work - that is the ultimate barometer in the end, the music (and words, which is my job).

And thank you Rushfan4 for your consideration of "Back From Being Gone" - we appreciate you giving us a shot and we hope that you enjoy it!

Thank you, Torodd, for interviewing Barry - that was grand of you to do and really helps us, much respect sir.

Cheers and thanks to all of you who have supported us already - we couldn't do this without you!

Very nice, Barry! Super-ultra congrats to you, George, Ryo, and all the fine, fine folks involved with this slice of melodic, progressive, metallic goodness. I am *very* happy to have had a very minor role in helping this project reach a potentially wider audience via the good people at 10T Records.

Best of luck with sales and promotion, this is a worthy album and a damned fine debut if I do say so myself (and I just did, didn't I?).

Hope to play a role on at least one of the tracks on album number #2!!!!

The new Mars Hollow release was my previous reason for needing to visit the 10T Records site; your album just gives me more incentive to do so. Their debut was one of my favorites from last year so I am definitely looking forward to hearing their new one too.

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